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SEIA is the solar energy industry’s go-to source for the latest coverage on solar power, including U.S. and international policy, research and polls, business and financing trends, and more. Our staff strives to support the media covering solar energy issues and guide our members on effective media outreach with clear statements, background materials, news and multimedia resources.

SEIA is committed to informing policymakers, the media, and the American public about the benefits of solar energy for today’s communities, our economy, and our country.

GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®) today released U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2nd Quarter 2012. The report finds that U.S. solar achieved its second-best quarter in history, having installed 742 megawatts of solar power, and the best quarter on record for the utility market segment.

Envision Solar International announced on Thursday that one of its Tracking Solar Trees®, which includes a SunCharge™ electric vehicle charging station as its trunk, will be going up at GM’s Milford Proving Ground.

The solar-power business is expanding quickly in the U.S., helping lift the cloud that has surrounded the industry since the demise of Solyndra LLC a year ago. But the growth isn't coming from U.S. solar-panel manufacturing, despite the money and rhetoric devoted to the industry by the Obama administration. Instead, it is in installations of largely foreign-made panels, whose falling price has made solar more competitive with other forms of power.

The U.S. Army is currently in the experimental phase of an alternative energy program that could make the military a little less reliant on fossil fuels. Out of the laboratory and into the field, the Army’s program SAGE includes innovative technologies, such as solar panels, and other measures that are gradually being introduced to various base camps to test their efficiency limits and personnel capacities.

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GE Energy Financial Services, part of General Electric (GE.N), said on Wednesday it bought a stake in a large U.S. solar power project for $100 million, bringing its investments in the sector to $1.4 billion in the last year.

Hundreds of start-ups are presenting advanced energy technologies at a Department of Energy conference this week. Their early-stage efforts are funded by a government grant program, called ARPA-e, but what happens next is a difficult question.

As governments around the world tinker over how best to support solar energy, a number of large corporations have thrown their weight behind the renewable resource. These moves could potentially shift the momentum driving the solar industry away from the public sector and onto private enterprise.

The Henderson County Detention Center, a 543-occupant detention facility, will cut hot water costs by 45 percent through the installation of a solar energy system from Asheville-based renewable energy firm SolTherm.